A Great Generation

The ones who have lived in the days of the “The Great Depression” and “World War I” are of a great generation. They were apart of the United States that made her strong and proud. In the depression, they did not give up and they were not afraid of hard work. As the men went off to war, the women took on jobs in the factories, and other work places to keep our nation thriving and thriving she did. Our men were on foreign soil fighting for freedom. Many gave their lives for the cause and others brought home the scars. These men surely gave the phrase “home of the brave” validity.

These great men and women are now great grand parents or great – great grandparents. They are not as physically strong as they once were, but they continue to possess that great - spirit. Some now reside in Veteran homes, assisted living areas other long term care centers. Many live alone. Their spouse has passed away and their children have grown and gone. Their eyesight is dim, their hearing is dull, and their extremities are weak.

These men and women who made our nation strong still and always will deserve our respect. They need our time. What a blessing it is to hear them tell of life back in the 30’s & 40’s. There is a great wealth of information that one could receive by listening and spending time with them. One of the things that we could all learn from them is commitment. They lived in an era where their word was their bond. One did not have to sign twenty pages of legal papers in the presence of a notary in order to sale something.

They have provided many things for our generation. They do not need to be forgotten. They have blessed us in a mighty way and it is time we bless them and let them know we care. Visit a man or lady from this era and let them know your appreciation for them. If you are from this generation, I salute you and I thank the Lord for you.

2 Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."

True Conversion

In the early to mid-1970s, Burger King ran a series of much-lampooned but successful and catchy television commercials in which its employees would sing: "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way!"

There are many who are looking for a religion, a church that holds back the truths of God's Word saying, Hold the preaching on the blood, hell and sin and tell us only good things of men, let us have it our way. The sad thing there are churches that have adopted the slogan, let us serve it your way.

There is a verse in the Bible that is absolutely horrifying; Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." There are many that are holding on the coat tail of religion who in their minds think they have something that is right. They have created their own Jesus, but he is not the Jesus of Scripture. God does not reveal Himself apart from the Word of God. Jesus Christ is no ones 'homeboy' or any other slang name one could come up with. He is not to be made to sound cool in todays terms for He is Lord. Those who have truely experienced conversion follow Him and do His will. He is the Master and we are His slaves.

Jesus told Nicodemus, one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. This means 'born from above.' John MacArthur writes, New birth is an act of God where eternal life is imparted to the believer. The sinner is in need of spiritual transformation that is produced by the Holy Spirit. The best way to understand true conversion as that we die to self and live for God. Many are just merely joining a religious institution and missing God.

The following is a devotion from Charles H. Spurgeon that I copied from Phil Johnson's blog.

Though I rejoice in sudden conversions, I entertain grave suspicions of those suddenly happy people who seem never to have sorrowed over their sin. I am afraid that those who come by their religion so very lightly often lose it quite as lightly. Saul of Tarsus was converted on a sudden, but no man ever went through a greater horror of darkness than he did before Ananias came to him with the words of comfort.I like deep ploughing. Top-soil skimming is poor work; the tearing of the soil under surface is greatly needed. After all, the most lasting Christians appear to be those who have seen their inward disease to be very deeply seated and loathsome, and after awhile have been led to see the glory of the healing hand of the Lord Jesus as he stretches it out in the gospel.I am afraid that in much modern religion there is a want of depth on all points; they neither deeply tremble nor greatly rejoice, they neither much despair nor much believe. Oh, beware of pious veneering! Beware of the religion which consists in putting on a thin slice of godliness over a mass of carnality. We must have thorough going work within; the grace which reaches the core, and affects the innermost spirit is the only grace worth having.To put all in one word, a want of the Holy Ghost is the great cause of religious instability. Beware of mistaking excitement for the Holy Ghost, or your own resolutions for the deep workings of the Spirit of God in the soul. All that ever nature paints God will burn off with hot irons. All that nature ever spins he will unravel and cast away with the rags. Ye must be born from above, ye must have a new nature wrought in you by the finger of God himself, for of all his saints it is written, "Ye are his workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus."Oh, but, everywhere I fear there is a want of the Holy Spirit! there is much getting up of a tawdry morality, barely skin deep, much crying "Peace, peace," where there is no peace, and very little deep heart-searching anxiety to be throughly purged from sin. Well-known and well-remembered truths are believed without an accompanying impression of their weight; hopes are flimsily formed, and confidences ill founded, and it is this which makes deceivers so plentiful, and fair shows after the flesh so common.

It is my prayer, that you know Jesus Christ and you have been plowed deep with conviction over your sin and you were born again.

Philippians 2:12-13, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

ll

Tony Snow

What a man of faith! I am sorry to say that I did not know much about Tony Snow until his death. The things that I have heard about our former Press Secretary of the White House has really inspired me. From Fox News and emails that I have received, it appears that Tony Snow was a man who was a fighter for what he believed. He enjoyed life and had a remarkable faith in God. The news of Tony's death on 7-12-08 brought out many people speaking of his faith on national TV. There are some good reflections of his life at http://www.foxnews.com/ .

I especially liked the testimony by Bret Baier, who shared of Tony's compassion when Bret's son was going through a serious heart surgery. To listen, type in Tony Snow in the search box at Fox News and hear of the great reflections of his life, and the courageous battle he fought against cancer.

The great news is he has won his battle with cancer.... through his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is cancer free and is in the presence of Jesus Christ. I am sure that Tony was in awe the first time he stood in the presence of the President of the United States, but on July 12th, he stood in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

The following is an email I received:

Tony Snow's Testimony

Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush Administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23, 2007, Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen,- leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30, but has resigned since, "for economic reasons," and to pursue " other interests.""Blessings arrive in unexpected packages, - in my case, cancer. Those of us with potentially fatal diseases - and there are millions in America today - find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence "What It All Means," Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the "why" questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is, a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.But despite this, - or because of it, - God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere.To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life,- and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non believing hearts - an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live fully, richly, exuberantly - no matter how their days may be numbered.Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease,- smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, - but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance; and comprehension - and yet don't. By His love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.'You Have Been Called'. Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet, a loved one holds your hand at the side. "It's cancer," the healer announces.The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter,- and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tiny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, - for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us part way there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two peoples' worries and fears.'Learning How to Live'. Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms, not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was an humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. "I'm going to try to beat [this cancer]," he told me several months before he died. "But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side."His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity, - filled with life and love we cannot comprehend, - and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it. It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up, - to speak of us!This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us who believe, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place, in the hollow of God's hand."

Tony Snow

Our prayers go up for his family. ll

What is following Jesus?

Matthew 4:18-20, Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said* to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

In this passage, Jesus came walking by and He called out to Peter and his brother Andrew who were busy fishing. They were not looking for Him nor did they invite Him. He came to them. He called them, "Follow me..." He did not say that everything is going to get better and it is going to be easy from this day forward . But He did say, "I will make you fishers of men."

All who are called of God are fishers of men. In order to catch men we must be followers of Jesus. Followers are obedient, they develop characteristics as the one they follow. They begin to walk and talk like the leader. They love and hate what the leader loves and hate. They follow not only when the path is smooth and easy, but when it is steep and harsh. They always keep their eyes on the the leader for they can stay focus.

Peter and Andrew dropped their nets immediately and followed Him. They fished again but they were never known again by their occupation, but by who they followed. We should desire all who know us, know us by who we follow and not by our occupation. Let them say, He/she is a Christian; I know because they follow Jesus.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." If we are following the way, and the truth and the life, we will see the Father.

Follow Him!